Hazelwood Harvest Fair

Well the day has finally arrived and gone. Where did that month go? I was so busy working at my regular job "Cab Driving" up at 6 am wrapping, soap, cuttting labels, taping and gluing soap labels, run out the door for 8 am, work till5;30 pm, come home, walk dog for an hour, come home feed animals make myself something to eat and work on soap till midnight! Whew...All for one day....but worth it. the fair turned out good I had a table right at the front door where people walked in. At 1 pm the doors where open and until 4 o'clock I was busy selling soap! I sold 26 bars which doesn't sound like a lot but made $130.00!! in 4 hours very successful first show!

Of all my soap winner of the day ....."PUMPKIN PATCH" Everyone loved it and the comment of the day was "I could just eat that!" Runner up "Green Tea and Chamomile" It was the fact that Green Tea is so popluar these days...Ithink, plus I also promoted it as the besti n the bath and just how natural the ingredients were!

Patchouli Love Soap

This was one of my first soaps. I love the smell! It was however making my partner Amy sick as she is going through the morning sickness and so it was removed from her shop. Rewrapped with a Tribal Heart label they look fantastic and are ready to go for sale t the Hazelwood Fair. Next Sunday is the day and think I will be ready!

Camouflage Backpacker Soap

Sept 12th is coming up and soon! Here is one soap I think will be a good seller. These are Goddessite Clay Unscented Backpack/Trail Size Bars, wrapped in a Camo Crochet Cloth made by myself I must add.

I am very proud of these little bundles of soap. I have been crocheting for a month now. There are 21 of these and hopefully they will be a hit at the Hazelwood Fair. $5.50 each, great gift for the camper or hunter. Unscented and slightly abrasive. Nice "Earthy" scent from the clay...its great stuff.

Pumpkin Patch Soap

Hi everyone! Its getting down to the crunch September 12th is coming up fast. My Harvest Festival Soaps have been curing for 3 or so weeks and are ready to be wrapped up for sale.

This was the first one I made, Pumpkin Patch, it smells so good you want to eat it.

I found the recipe for this soap on the internet and wrote it down. Glad I did because it is one of the better soaps I have made. For the next couple of weeks I will be wrapping up all the bars and as I go along I will post them for you all to see and order if you want!

If you want the recipe email me and I will send it to you for now gonna keep it a secret!

I have been really thinking how to wrap my soap bars so it takes less work, tough but I kind of came up with something which I will share. Purchased a pad of scapbooking papers and am cutting out strips to fit around the bars. Trying to colour co-ordinate them to match the bars theme. I download clipart images http://www.bing.com/ is my fav, copy the image I want into works and produce my label. It is still time consuming but looking a bit more professional then just a raffia bow. enjoy

Black Licorice Swirl

Well I don't think I have ever been this excited about soap...it got me dancing in the kitchen.

I think it is my best soap to date. I have tried marbling before with other soap recipes and this is my best result so far!! the recipe made 32 bars of soap, two full soap molds. I was exstatic when I took them out and cut them. This I will make again. Want the recipe? here it is

4 oz Castor Oil

38 oz Crisco w/palm all veg oil

24 oz Organic Coconut Oil 76

24 oz Olive Oil

34.2 oz Distill Water

12.72 oz Sodium Hydroxide

2 25 oz Black Licorice Fragrance Oil (Canwax)

Activated Charcoal (Pre-saturated with oil) I poured in maybe an ounce and a bit to swirl

At light trace add the fragrance then pour your activated charcoal ITP (in the pot) in spots here and there and pour into mold, with a bamboo skewer run thru the soap mix and make your swirls back and forth and then criss-cross, Put it to bed. I let this sit for 36 hours before taking out of the mold. It was hard not to peek :-) I am going to use this recipe for my next batch of Miyake for Women a nice perfumey soap and am going to use pink and green clay for the marble so stay tuned. Doesn't it get exciting! if you want one send me a line. Online orders $5.00 bar Harvest Festival $6.50

Hazelwood Harvest Festival

Hi Folks! Its been awhile. I have had a hot summer so far here in Thunder Bay so haven't been spending too much time indoors to keep things updated. Plus I have been getting ready for the upcoming Hazelwood Harvest Festival, September 12th I have been very busy soaping away
I have made a number of soaps since my last post including a soap I came up with for the festival. I am calling it Hazelwood Harvest Soap. a nutty fragrance of hazelnut and brewed coffee. My husband doesn't like the smell, but as it cures away in its spot upstairs I keep checking it and its not bad do have to say its not one of my favorites. I ordered 8 oz of the fragrance so somewhere down the line I will have to incorporate it into something else.

Goddessite Healing Soap

Here is is the finished product! This is "pure" raw soap made from local "Goddessite Clay" My client Howard (I still don't know his last name) commissioned me to make soap from his clay deposit at a local Amethyst mine here in Thunder Bay. I incorporated it into my regular soap recipe. It turned out wonderfull! This bar of soap is "Earthy and has that nature smell to it. There are no fragrances added to this at all. It is the clay that emits the earth qualities. Its a tan colour bar and it cured real quick! Its going to be a hard long lasting bar that won't melt away in the shower. The clay gives it a exfoliating property to remove dead skin cells and it lathers really well! Each bar comes with an Amethyst Pendant, also collected from the local Thunder Bay mine. A raw cut stone with a leather cord, wrapped in gold wire. They say that Amethyst is a healing stone which draws out all negative thoughts in our sub-conscious and brings in positive ones. It is third stone of the Chakra to help balance energy. It is the throat Chakra, which aids in our confidence in speaking and communication. Very Cool! We are selling this package at $18.00 for the soap and the pendant.

Goddessite! A tribute to the Goddess Artemis

In my busniess at Amy's Organics I have become real good friends with her and her friend Howard. He runs a local amethyst mine here in Thunder Bay and has been helping Amy set up her Organic Shop. To make a long story short, Howard is very energetic and very excited about his amethyst and he has some beautiful crystals and landscape rocks. Howard is in the process of mining the clay deposits that are amoung the amethyt in the mine. This clay is soft and powdery and a bit like pumice stone, but finer.
Howard commissioned me to create a soap using this clay which he calls "Goddessite Healing Clay"
I have been busy the last couple of weeks in hopes to prepare a beautiful bar of soap for him. I wanted this soap to be pure and earthy!
I am very excited about ths soap. It has a hardness to it and exfoliating properties and smells Earthy from the clay. There is no other fragrance...just pure raw soap! I found this clipart on bing and it fits the description of Artemis to a tee!
I will use for my poster for our new soap. Stay tuned. I think this pic is beautiful!

Ray Linke 2010 Golf Invitaional

Here is my brochure I made for the Invitational it turned out really well. thanks Sandy for the Clipart! I made out 72 of these coupons to hand out to all the golfers hopefully they will come out and use them I am really proud of my efforts for this donation. My soap package I hope was a big hit! I haven't heard back from Tina about it but am sure it went over well.

Busy Busy Busy !

Well have I been busy with Soap Contracts. First of all I was contacted by a girl, Tina Morin,who was co-ordinating a golf tournament and was looking for donations. Its free stuff I gave her but sample bars that I had just lying around. The Golf Tournament was on June 25th and was in support of Shanti Village in Nepal. The money goes to the new school there.

Nepal is a poverty stricken country and only 1 out of 5 children get to go to school and mostly is boys. The girls there get no education as they beleive that the girls should be at home doing the chores. They want to change all that and give all the children equal opportunity. I think it is a wonderful program. For more information you can check the website http://www.shantivillage.org

I made up a box of a variety of sample soaps a nice brochure and 72 $1.00 coupons to hand out tt the players as gifts. This is also a good way for me to get my name out there. Here are some pictures of the Golf Package. It turned out real well.

Dead Sea Soap.....Update

So as it turns out this soap isn't so bad after all. I was really disappointed after I finished cutting these bars as they were crumbling and just sweating with moisture. My friend Sandy from Little Meadows told me that the activated charcoal may also bleed if I used too much.

These bars have been sitting for a week now, they are not sweating anymore and with soap the bars loose moisture as they sit curing.

In this recipe I used 2 pounds of Dead Sea Salt and 4 tsp. of activated charcoal. The batch made 6 pounds of soap. The more I check them they are holding their shape they are not crumbling anymore. My husband John loves the smell. (Satsuma...Manadrin and Jasmine) with the charcoal they are glittery and sparkly. I think after a good month they will be good enough to sell. I love the grainy texture of them too! The grains look wavy. Will keep you updated.

Dead Sea Soap ...Dissappointing

Well a few days back if you recall I made soap with Dead Sea Salts and Activated Charcoal. I let them sit for a coupel of days and cut them into bars this morning. When I took them out of the molds they were wet. I was reading on the net that this may occur with the salt. Also Sandy Wilson from Little Meadows emailed me and told me not to use too much charcoal as it tends to bleed and can be drying to the skin. Too Late! it was made before I got that info.

Also in my receipe I added 2 pounds of sea salt...as this was my first try at this soap it always is an experiment. When I cut the bars the morning they were crumbly, they are holding the soap bar shape and I don't know if they will get any better as they cure. Trial and error.
I am very upset about this this batch but what cha gonna do :-(

If anything I can try to rebatch the bars into something else. They smell so good with the Mandarin Jasmine Fragrance. Gonna have to order more of that F.O. and try making something else. I know now I won't use salt again.

My Dog Willy

I am so tired and need a break from soap making. Don't get me wrong but that is all I've been doing since January. My Dead Sea Soap is curing away i took a peek it looks good. Last week I went hiking in the backwoods with my dog Willy. He knows every swimmung hole down the path of theCurrent River, Here he is in one of his favorite spots and lo and behold there is a stick down there! I gotta get it!

Trowbridge Falls

Took a good day off from everything and went for a three hour hike to Trowbridge Falls. Here in Thunder Bay we are surrounded by such beautiful woodlands and this is where I grew up. It was my back yard on Black Bay Crescent.

Dead Sea Soap Recipe

So here is the recipe.

24 oz Olive Oil,
24 oz Coconut Oil 76 degree
38 oz Crisco w/palm
12 oz Lye
32 oz Distilled Water
4 tbsp. Activated Charcoal
4 oz "Satsuma" Mandarine & Jasmine Fragrance Oil from Saffire Blue
2 lbs Dead Sea Salts

Smells wonderful. I am a bit worried tho about how hard its going to be to cut the bars?
We will soon find out.

Keep tuned

Dead Sea Salt Soap

Before I started making soap, I was in Alberta visiting my sister, just this past Christmas. We went shopping at the Bauer Mall in Red Deer and came across a kiosk that was selling Dead Sea Salt Products. The girl at the booth was from Isreal I'm sure. She was beautiful and mesmerizing. It was like Donna and I just got hypnotized by her. To make a long story short we ended up falling in love with the Dead Sea Salt face mask and the hand salts. We ended up spending like $400.00 there!

The Dead Sea is so magical and since bible times people have been drawn to it for its healing powers. The Dead Sea water is full of minerals that just cleanse us.

So when I started making soap it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to try to make some. Six months later here it is! I am very excited about it!

As you can see the soap is curing away in my molds. Now we have to wait at least 36 hours before we can remove it and then cut to bars.

Bug Off!

I wanted to make a soap that help ward off the mosquitos and flies for the summer season and the first batch is ready to go. Taking orders now @ 5 bucks a bar. Nice strong citronella lemongrass and litsea cubeba oils. Sure to be a hit with the campers down Lakeshore Drive and close to Amy's Organics where I am hoping to sell them all!

Johnny's "Lady Bug" Soap

My husband John. He has been supportive of my new hobby. I have been keeping the kitchen in a bit of a mess last few months. But he wants me to be successful. He came up with an idea of making a "Lady Bug" Soap and I ran with it. I came up with an idea of Black Raspberry Fragrance Oil, colour the bar red and add poppy seeds to visualize the ladybug concept. Well did it turn out nice. Again using my bible (Sandy Maine's The Soap Book) I came up with the recipe. I added a few other ingredients and of course used the soapcalc for proper measure here is the finished bar. Smells soooo gooood!!

Looks real good too!

I am very pleased with this batch. Here you can see the finished bar. I will give you the recipe.

3.0 oz Castor Oil

5.8 oz Palm Oil

6.0 Oz French Roasted Hazelnut Oil

32.5 oz Crisco (w/palm)

24.0 oz Coconut Oil (76 degree)

24.0 oz Olive Oil

4 tsp Moraccan Red Clay

4 oz Black Raspberry Fragrance Oil

1 bag Poppy Seeds

36.214 oz distilled water

13.456 oz Sodium Hydroxide (lye)

yield 6 lbs of soap (5.96 to be exact)

I had left over ingredients from a coffee soap I made so I decided to use them up in this batch. The soap turned out amazing!

2 days before mix your clay with your oil, I used the hazelnut oil to blend with the clay, but again you can choose your EO.

As with the Eucalyptus Soap the method is the same for this recipe.

Melt the hard oils first on the stove then mix the liquid ones after the hard oils liquify. Mix your water and lye. Let the two cool to 110 degrees. Then mix together

Take a cup of soap at trace and mix into the red clay, I thoroughly mixed it into the soap mix as I wanted the soap to be solid red. Add your frangrance oil and poppy seeds pour into molds let it sit 36 hours unmold and cut.

How to Mix your Clay

With the recipe what I did was prepare the French Green Clay 2 days before hand. In a container mix the 4 tsp of green clay with an essential oil. I used 2 oz Sweet Almond Oil. Mix with a stir stick and put in the fridge so the grains of the clay absorb with the oil. I continually took it out of the fridge and gave it a good stir. This makes sure that the grains of the clay are fully absorbed with the oil before mixing it into the soap. You don't want to have dry grains in your finished bars. Plus the oil seperates from the clay if left alone, just like oil and vinegar does if you don't shake it. Same thing.

New Soap Eucalyptus Spearmint and Instructions

Here is my Eucalyptus Spearmint bars of soap I used the Sandy Maine book again and added some Greed French Clay for marble effect and Eucalyputus Spearmint Fragrance Oil. Again with Sandy's Maine recipe, it turned out real nice and smells amazing. Here is the recipe and instructions how to make:

32 oz Crisco All Vegetable Oil (new w/palm)

24 oz Coconut Oil (76 degree)

24 oz Olive Oil

2 oz Sweet Almond Oil

4 tsp. French Green Clay for colour

5 tsp. Ground Pumice

30.4 oz Distilled Water

11.45 oz Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)

With your tare scale measure your ingredients. I start with the Olive Oil set aside. Then I measure my coconut and crisco and place them into a stainless steel pot for melting on the stove. Before I put the element on I measure out my distilled water and place that into my other stainless pot and put it in the kitchen sink and open the window. Then measure the lye.

Once I've done all that I mix the lye into the water and stir so it gets properly melted in the water and then I turn the stove on at medium heat and melt the coconut and crisco oils so they become liquid. Once they are liquified I take off the stove and then add the olive oil. At this stage the lye and the oils need to be cooled down to at least 110 degrees. This is where you test the temp with your candy thermometers.

While things are cooling down I line my molds with wax paper to have them ready. You can do this before hand but I find it takes a good 1/2 hour for things to cool so I do it then gives me something to do while I wait.

Of course having your stick blender ready, and your other ingredients handy by the stick blender, should be the next thing you do. Its just like baking. Then your not running.

Okay so now you are at 110 degrees. you should have your rubber gloves on too as now you take your lye and pour it into your oil pot. You will see right away it mixes into your oil like heavy white pudding. Take your stick blender immerse it into the pot then turn it on and blend. When you notice that the mix is turning thick like pudding and the mixture stays on the blender and leaves trace marks on top you know your soap is at trace.

Now take your Fragrance Oil and pour into the soap mixture. Give it a good few blasts with the stick blender. Now add your ground pumice stone and stir it in, you can stir with the stick blender on the off mode to mix it in.

Now for the Green Clay. Because I wanted to marble the soap, I took about a cup of the soap mixture and poured it into the container with the clay and mixed it with a wire whisk, when I felt it was mixed enough I poured it into the pot. (ITP) and did not mix it thouroughly into the soap as I didn't want all the soap to turn green. I poured it in gave it just a quick stir and thats it! Ready to pour into the molds.

I had two molds ready to go. Pour the soap into the molds and smooth out with a spatchula so its even. I cover the molds with a couple of layers of plastic wrap and set aside to saponify. I also have a nice piece of heavy bubble wrap I put on top of the molds and then cover them with an old bath towel. Now you have to wait for the soap to do its thing. 36 hours, at least! Just leave it to cook. Its hard not to peak and smell. but don't as you want the soap to stay hot and warm plus you don't want soap ash to form on top.

After your bars have sat undisturbed for 36 hours you can take them out of the mold. The soap logs you have created are ready to cut into bars. Going back into the blog I have expalined my use of a mitre box for cutting the bars.

I got 44 bars out of this batch of soap and it yields 5 pounds. One of best bars to date! My fragrance oils, lye, coconut oil were all ordered from http://www.saffireblue.com/

Sandy Maine's "The Soap Book"

I have been talking so much about this book here it is so if you want to pick up a copy you will know which one to buy. Like I said before its my bible, easy to follow and nice recipes to try.

Nature's Touch Organic Soap!

Well my friend Sandy Wilson from Perkionmenville, PA has been my mentor I just love her! I was struggling with a name to call my soap business and this is what she came up for me, I love it Sandy and have registered it with Revenue Canada and now have a Vendors Permit! It suits the Organic Shop to a tee!! :-) This is the result of my hard work since coming back from Red Deer at Christmas, with my sister Donna's encouragement and Sandy it took only six months to get my business up and going!

I just hope I can keep up if I sell out :-(

I need to soap everynight and the only thing is is costs money to make money and that I don't have...maybe time to talk to a banker...we'll have to see. Grand Opening is in 10 mins...May 21st, its now 10 mins to midnight I bet Amy can't sleep a wink. I wish her all the luck in the world at her new shop and want to thank her for such a great opportunity to be a part of it!!!! YAHOO

Amy's Organics!!! and I'm In!!!

Well I have been extremely busy with soap making. I've kind of mastered the Sandy Maine Recipe and am still loving it as it is simple and turns out real great! I haven't been writing my blog because as it turns out I just happened to go on the Kiijjii site,its like ebay where you can post ads for stuff for sale and want ads and things. So one morning about a month ago I was poking around the hobbies and crafts section and saw this ad for someone who was looking for someone local who makes handmade soaps....my face dropped, what is this I exclaimed!!!! to my husband John , I emailed her right away and told her I was making soap in my kitchen. This girl Amy is in the process of opening an organic shop and was looking for local artisans to help fill up her new store. It is a country store that is a about 15 mins out of town and she called me, we met and she agreed to put my soap there on consignment. What a break for me!!! I was the only one who answered her ad too by the way.

I have been very busy making soap and getting all my other soaps wrapped and tagged and weighed and going to the printers, I finally bought one so I can print my stuff out at home. thats another story..... buying stuff to make my display for the shop space she's given me. I have been working at cab driving, making soap, walking dog, doing my gardening and housekeeping, running back and forth to her shop and am exhausted but so excited!!!!!

A good recipe!

Okay so I am catching up a little here no pictures ....but my bible has been Sandy Maines, The Soap Book. Her book uses the same ingredients for the soap base and then gives recipes using different scents and oils. I love this book! Its so simple: I'll give it to you....

24 oz olive oil
24 oz coconut oil
38 oz Crisco All Vegetable oil (I use the new w/palm)
12 oz lye
32 oz distilled water

At trace add your Fragrance Oils, Essential Oils your colours if you are marbling your clays or ground exfoliants. mix and put into your molds. I find her book so easy to follow for us beginners! check her out on the web www.sunfeathersoaps.com

*Note* it is always good to check your recipe before you start with www.soapcalc.com
for exact measures. Its easy to follow!

Till next time Happy Soaping!

(Now I am in a panic cause I don't know what I did with her book...Its somewhere in my soap piles I've got going on) I hope!

So much to Learn! Soap Molds

I have been struggling with the unification of my soap bars. I have one wooden log mold which I like, another is a plastic mold which was okay at first but the last batch of soap I made with it the sides buckled and I ended up with a puffed out log mold. After cutting it the bars were okay but I had to trim alot of excess off the sides . Because I am going to be selling I want my bars to be uniform so I don't have a bunch of soap thats all whacky! I tried using milk cartons too which the bars turned out but are more square "ish" I have looked at Walmart, Superstore, Staples, for containers that may be suitable for makng a good soap bar but to no avail. I am getting fussy now. (to order on the internet from suppliers, is expensive at this point).
I am pretty tapped. Soaping is not a cheap hobby as I am finding out.

My hubby had a telescope box that was the perfect size and so I used that on the last batch of soap I made and got 44 bars out of it. I will continue to use that box until I can afford to get something else. You really want your bars to look the same! I may commission my hub to make some for me with some of the lumber we have around here.

Soaping Update

Since I started this blog I was such a "newbie" at the process of making soap. Over the last few months I have contiuned to make soap. The Patchouli Love Soap turned out real nice. It leaves a light trace of scent on you all day! No wonder its called Love Soap! I've had people tell me "it smells nice in here" (I drive cab) I'm going to have to make more of it.

I am excited actually as I will be putting soap on consignment in a new shop here in Thunder Bay "Amy's Organics" 526 Lakeshore Drive. My soap will be there on consignment. So that is the reason I haven't written on the blog as I have to get ready to sell!!! We will open May 21st

Finished Soap Bars! A Sucess!

These bars came out of my wooden soap mould, the end pieces I roll and make into a soap ball. All you have to do now is run the edges over with a vegetable peeler to remove the ragged sides and let it cure. Curing time....at least 4 weeks.

More Bar Cutting!

Here is the first cut, I feel kind of professional doing this lol! But this is where it gets exciting. After reading and reading and scanning the internet I can finally see the reward! I am still a rookie at this new craft but this wants me to make more! The smell is amazing too! I got 30 bars out of this batch!

How to Cut Your Soap into bars!

Well folks its been since March since I have made any entries and never did finish up on the Love Soap. After you remove your soap from the molds ( a good rest time is 12-48 hours) you end up with loaves of soap. What I did was go the hardware store and purchased a Mitre box. Mine cost 10 bucks so cheap to buy. I took some white medical tape and marked the mitre box at 1 inch. You put the loaf into the box line it up from the tape mark to the slots where you cut. Simple. I purchased a soap cutter which makes this task easy.

One more to Unveil!

Here are all three. the other milk carton standing tall looks good and now we are ready to cut the bars! Stay tuned on how to do that.

For my second try I am pretty happy with the result. I have desire to make more and perfect my soaps so eventually I can market them!!! Craft fairs and Farmers market here we come!

More Unwrappimg

Here is the small milk container looks rough on the edges but thats part of it. I'm excited!

Unwrapping of the LOVE SOAP!

This is the big one came out of my 3 lb wood mold looks pretty good!

Love Soap....Its in the mold!

Okay so after blending and mixing here it is poured into the molds. My friend Sandy from Little Meadows Sheep Farm, told me a good thing to use as a mold are empty milk containers, they are waxed and hold soap well so I used those too!

And does this soap smell like a winner! Much better then the first batch I made.. I covered the molds with plastic food wrap and then covered with nice buble wrap to keep them warm they have to sleep now for a good 24 hours. I can't wait to open them up! made my house smell so good too!

Love Soap Cont'd

Here is the stick blender. I got mine at Canadian Tire and the box said "Stainless Steel Blades" Gotta have one! This makes life easy.

Back to Recipe on Love Soap!

We left off making sure your lye and and oils reach the same temperatures. While I was waiting I got my molds ready. I used my new wooden soap mold and lined it with the waxed freezer paper.

Made sure I had my stick blender ready and plugged in and my patchouli oil to mix in.

When the oil and lye reached a hundred degrees I poured the lye slowly into the oils. You will se it turn color right away. Place your stick blender into the mix and then turn it on to blend. This recipe traced real quick, Trace occurs when the oils and lye are blended to turn your recipe into a pudding like mix. When you take your blender and pull it out the soap should stick to the blender and the leave trace marks on top of your soap. At this stage I added the 4 ounces of patchouli and blended it into the soap. It was ready to pour into the mold. Process time 1.5 hours

Patchouli Love Soap!

After my first batch of soap turned out badly...I refuse to give up! I am still scanning the net and books that I've purchased and decided to give Patchouli LOVE SOAP a try. Book by Sandy Maine, I carry it around like a bible. I love this book! its called. "The Soap Book" Simple Herbal Recipes. Its easy to follow. I found a great Canadian Company "Saffire Blue" http://www.saffireblue.ca/ and have been ordering from them. This recipe was real simple as follows:

24 ounces olive oil

24 ounces coconut oil

38 ounces vegetable shortening (Crisco)

12 ounces sodium hydroxide (lye)

12 ounces distilled water

4 ounces patchouli Essential Oil

(and by the way I ordered myself a new wooden soap mold that comes apart and got the proper freezer paper for lining the mold)

The first thing I did was get my work space ready, I lined my counter with a large garbage bag, got my pots ready, scale, stick blender, measuring cups and spoons my oils at the ready.

Take the scale put your measuring container on it and tare to zero so you are only measuring the weight of the oils. add your oilve oil and measure out 24 ounces, put the olive oil aside.

Next measure your 24 ounces coconut oil, remember to tare the scale to zero, add that to your stainless steel pot, and then again same thing for your Crisco Oil, tare to zero measure out 38 oz and add to the stainless pot with the coconut oil. At a medium high heat on the stove start to melt these oils together.

SAFETY! are you wearing your robber gloves and goggles?? put them on!

While the oils are melting, make your lye solution. Measure out on your scale 12 ounces sodium hydroxide, remembering to tare to zero first, put aside. Measure 32 ounces of distilled water, taring to zero, put your water in your other stainless steel pot and in a well ventillated area take your sodium hydroxide and slowly add to the water, never the other way around as it will erupt like a volcano! and stir until the lye is mixed well into the water. You will notice the fumes and the heat rising. Now check your oils on the stove. Don't ever leave them alone too long.

When your oils on the stove have melted to clear take off the heat and add your olive oil that you have set aside. Allow your oils to cool to 100 degrees F you can check your temperture with a candy thermometer. Your oils and lye need to be at the same temperature to mix together.

Sweet Almond Oil Oatmeal Bars

Here is the first batch of soap. pretty rough looking but a start.

First Soap Batch Ever!

Well its been awhile since I blogged! I made a couple of batches of Sweet Almond Oil and Oatmeal. these were made with Olive, Canola, Safflower Oil and blended with ground Oatmeal which is supposed to be good for your skin and I added sweet almond oil which is supposed to skin moisturizing. I have to say they turned out but not too happy with the result. I didn't line my mould properly and had trouble taking it out so the bars look a little rough. and I ended up using the wrong type of freezer paper and had trouble removing the soap. I was swearing at the end of it all. I have 40 bars that I'm just going to use up myself and throw in for gifts to people. I don't think I will be able to sell any of these.

A Good YouTube Video

This video is one of the best I've seen so far watch it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghvQ4v_Fjrs

My Sister...Donna Brinkworth

She is my inspiration: If it wasn't for my sister I wouldn't be on this journey. I want to say to her thank you from the bottom of my heart...and here she is..


These are just a couple of Donnas babies.. her border collies Jet on the left and Ted they are both super nice dogs and smart. They do sheep herding as well as tracking. Jet is all of herself and Ted well as you can see he is a character. Baaboos! Donna has a superb website that you should check out here http://www.spiritdancedogs.blogspot.com/

Thank You Sandy! Little Meadows Sheep Farm Rocks!

I just want to say thanks again to Sandy Wilson from Little Meadows Sheep Farm for making such wonderful soap, and for inspiring me to follow this passion check her soap out at this website: www.littlemeadowsheepfarm.com

Here it is! and its so delicious!!

Here is the picture of the Dead Sea Soap. I promised yesterday that I would post it.